Olympias : a chamber opera, music by Malcolm J. Hill (2002), libretto by John F. Deethardt (2001)
e-mail : info@olympias.org.uk
Why Olympias?
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“In Him, in God, . . . rests the final and reconciling truth of this mystery
that is human life, which is above all the mystery of undeserved suffering.”
{H.D.F. Kitto, The Greeks}
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TIME 316 B.C.
SETTING An ancient Greek amphitheater. (Orchestra, a dancing
circle. Skene. Periaktoi. Scaena ductile.)
A Castle at Pydna (Modern: Kitros). The ramparts of a castle,
upper level, with a throne room below. The orchestra is below the throne-room
setting.
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The opera is written with the travelling opera-group very much in mind. At its very smallest, the chamber opera could use just two soloists (Olympias, soprano, and Cassander, tenor) with four singers in the Chorus, taking other parts when needed. The "orchestra" is at minimum a string quartet, which might not have to travel with the company, but utilize a competent quartet in residence at the site of production. Non-vocal roles could be cast from the local population. The music is constructed in such a way that the four singers in the chorus could expand into eight or twelve; the string quartet could expand into a string ensemble, with additional doubling-lines for string basses, etc.
e-mail : info@olympias.org.uk
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The fate of Olympias, the facts and circumstances beyond her control, is being born a woman, a queen, daughter of kings, wife of a king, mother of kings, the legend of being a descendant of gods, in a patriarchal society with the social customs and practices of male monarchs. That is her heritage and her upbringing. But the Fates spin a thread for this royal person with knots of circumstance from capricious male monarchical behaviors of the day, and that proves to be the source of Ate’s intrusion into the course of her life. She finds it natural to commit murder to avenge murder, implemented by reckless impulse, and hubris. She ignores the justice of “all things considered”. She ignores the spirit and voice of the ancient mother, Gaia. Themis - that which is Right and Correct - is disregarded, the gods are dishonored. Boundaries and limits are overstepped. Disregarding Themis and taking moira into her own hands, the Furies, dread deities of divine vengeance, descend on her.
Years after her son, Alexander III (the Great) died in Babylon, Olympias, Queen of Epirus, nursed her antipathy toward Alexander’s appointed regent, Antipater, and vicariously satiated her lust for retribution against the clan that she believed had poisoned her son. She brooded on the past through Dionysiac revels that approached the level of Satyr plays.
Antipater appointed Polyperchon to be the guardian of the two kings, a situation caused by Alexander’s dying without an heir. Antipater’s son, Cassander, was insulted by being passed over for the appointment to be Antipater’s successor at Antipater’s death. Thus are sown the seeds of many years of wars and treachery by Alexander’s successors, who covet the power he had.
Polyperchon, the new regent, asked Olympias to become the guardian of the kings and again take the throne of Macedonia for he must go off to defend the realm from Cassander’s assaults. The upstart, Eurydice, who married one of the kings (the half-wit half-brother of Alexander, Philip Arrhidaeus), joined with Cassander. She invaded Macedon. Olympias confronted and defeated her.
When Olympias returned from her triumph, she had an appetite for more, having regained the arbitrary power of a monarch. She reveled in murderous impulses. A string of atrocities followed, and many deserted her.
She retreated to the castle at Pydna
where she came under siege by Cassander. Her situation becomes hopeless. Her
bargaining with Cassander fails. Cassander breaks the siege. Olympias
surrenders. But she realizes she has been betrayed when his soldiers burst in to
slay her, but she has the charisma to face them down. As they withdraw, she
savors a triumph, but in the next instant she suffers a catastrophe of her own
making and some measure of remorse.
Alone, grief-stricken, she achieves something beyond her regret, perhaps a small
measure of redemption. Her fate descends on her, again through the agency of
Cassander. Her bloody acts overtake her. She faces her death calmly.
The Epilogos completes the destruction of the line of Alexander. Cassander murders young Alexander IV and his mother, Roxanê.
e-mail : info@olympias.org.uk
The king, her husband, was assassinated many years before. Her son, Alexander III, died in Babylon seven years earlier. Without Alexander to mother, or a king to be queen to, Olympias, given her “lot” in life, channels her energy into the Dionysiac frenzies, into the snake and wine culture, burning her energies in dancing and intrigue, sniping at targets of her emotional frustration. Her worship of Dionysus provides a huge assist in her acts, as in her prejudging her son’s death as murder.
Lacking any political power, she succumbs to the one quick and easy technique of power modeled well by her royal kin, murder, assassination! That gets her the political power she needs. Her judgment is wholly swayed by her emotions. With her husband, Philip, Aphrodite’s necessity to love was lost, when her love was perverted by Philip’s promiscuity and other expressions of his political power. The necessity to love her son was lost to his daimon to explore and make war. The father, Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, led her into the legend of divine birth. Thus she was encumbered by her frustrated motherhood, divine lineage, and man-hating. She was bereft of Alexander’s filial duties, his companionship, (and his lack of an heir, whom he would not have wanted to leave in his mother’s care.) With all that, she became a reckless instrument of vengeance when she was reinstated as queen-guardian of the two kings, Philip Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV, Alexander’s son born to Roxanê after his death. She makes Alexander’s appointed regent in Macedon, Antipater, and his family suffer for their murderous ways.
Above and beyond her lot, she falls heir to power beyond the power of a woman, against Antipater’s dying advice to others “never to permit a woman to hold first place in the kingdom.”
She found it natural to commit murder to avenge murder. Deceived and possessed, Olympias lost all powers of reasoned discrimination, sound judgment, and enlightened self interest. Ate entered into her acts with a plague of mistaken convictions, implemented by reckless impulse, and hubris.
She had ignored the justice of “all things considered”. She had ignored
the spirit and voice of the ancient mother, Gaia. Themis, that which is Right
and Correct, was disregarded and offended; the gods were dishonored.
Boundaries and limits were overstepped. She disregarded Themis and took moira
into her own hands, bringing the Furies, dread deities of divine vengeance,
down upon her.
e-mail : info@olympias.org.uk
Scene
One
The Mother of Alexander under siege
The following scenes may also be included:
Optional scene A (within Scene 1) : Love Scene
Olympias and Polyperchon
Optional scene B (within Scene 1) : Death of Antipater
Optional scene C (within Scene 3) : Murderous Olympias
Death of Nicanor, Death of Philip Arrhidaeus, Death of the 100 Friends, Death of Eurydice
Optional scene D (within Scene 3) : The Bacchantes
e-mail : info@olympias.org.uk
This is the second opera resulting from the collaboration between Malcolm Hill and John Deethardt. For details of their earlier (full-scale) opera, Chauvin (completed 2000) please click http://www.chauvin.org.uk